nightmares on wax
by sarsaparillia
Summary: It's 3AM and Sakura's contemplating disconnecting her phone. — Sasuke/Sakura.


**disclaimer**: disclaimed  
><strong>dedication<strong>: best friends and Harry Potter parties.  
><strong>notes<strong>: if they don't put me away, it'll be a miracle.  
><strong>notes2<strong>: for LJ's **sasusaku_month**. prompt was _hello/goodbye_ under _AU_.

**title**: nightmares on wax  
><strong>summary<strong>: It's 3AM and Sakura's contemplating disconnecting her phone. — Sasuke/Sakura.

—

.

.

.

.

.

The phone rings at 3AM. It's loud in her ears and Sakura reaches for it, cursing like a sailor.

_If it's Naruto_, she thinks, _I am going to kill him. Kill him dead. Dead so that he can never do this to me again. Ever_.

"H'llo?" she croaks.

"_Hn_."

Sakura's eyes are closed and she doesn't bother to open them. She knows Sasuke's voice like the back of her hand. "Why're y'callin'? S'like three in th'morning…"

His breathing is smooth and deep, so Sakura knows that he's not in trouble. The only times he's ever called this late have entailed a very drunk Naruto getting into a fight and then having to bail them both out of jail.

Morons.

"_I heard that_—"

Sakura cuts him off. She can feel herself waking up and she _mentally curses him into oblivion_. "What did Naruto tell you?"

He ploughs on. "—_you're dating someone_."

Sakura sits up so fast, she's sure she's snapped something important. Maybe her spine. She can hear it _pop_. She's also completely awake, now, and this sounds like it's going to be a long conversation. There likely won't be any point in going back to sleep after it's done.

(Sleep? Who needs sleep?)

Killing everyone is the best option, right now.

"Stop. We are not _seriously_ having this conversation right now. You did not _seriously_ just ask me about my love life. I am going to hang up and go back to sleep and tomorrow I am going to _pummel_ you. Are we clear?" she growls into the receiver.

Sasuke appears to be ignoring her.

"_Sakura_," he says.

Just her name.

And all the fight disappears.

Sakura flops back to her pillows and groans. He is going to be the death of her, she knows it, he knows it, everyone knows it.

"Fine," she grumbles. "Just this _once_. I'm still gonna pummel you. I'm not gonna be gentle."

She doesn't note the innuendo until she's finished the sentence. She can _hear_ the smirk. Sakura hates _everything_.

"_So_," he says. There's a question that Sakura doesn't want to answer in his voice, but she figures that the faster she gets this conversation over with, the faster she can go back to sleep.

"Sort of," she mumbles. "Not really. We've gone on a few dates, I guess."

"_Who?_"

"Hm?" and she's already falling back asleep.

"_With __**who**__, Sakura?_"

To tell him, or to let him sweat?

"Neji," she says after a long time. It's pensive and true—she likes Neji. He's nice. A little stiff, but he's not—well. He's not Sasuke.

And that does make a difference, not that Sakura is getting going to admit it.

There's a hiss and a thud and a rattle. Sakura almost laughs. "You okay?"

"_Hn_," he grunts. "_How was work_?"

Sakura sighs into the receiver. It would be like Sasuke to keep her talking. "It was alright. I didn't get home 'til two."

She imagines the look on his face. His lips have thinned and his eyes have gone all dark, the way they always do when she tells him about her shifts. Eyebrows pulled down. and he's almost pouting—

"_You work too much_."

Sakura laughs. "Tsunade says that, too."

"_Everyone says that, Sakura_."

"I think I don't work near enough," Sakura replied. "And I could tell you the same thing, Mr. Works-Sixteen-Hour-Days. Do you even ever sleep? Ever?"

He chuckles over the phone. His voice is low and deep and sounds like gravel and glass. Sakura almost shivers. She catches herself and doesn't let it get to her.

"_Not really_," he says.

They both fall into silence, and Sakura listens to him breathe. She can hear strains of music over the phone, and the _screech-beep-beep_ of traffic. She wonders where he is. Where he's going. Who he's going with.

No matter.

"Can I back to sleep, now?" Sakura asks. Exhaustion hits like a brick in her stomach. She is so, so tired.

"_No_," he replies. "_Keep talking_."

"I hate you. I really, really hate you. I have _work_ in the morning, you know?"

"_So do I._"

"What, hate me or have work?"

He snorts. "_Work_."

Sometimes Sasuke-speak is hard to decipher. Sakura doesn't know if she should take that snort as _what are you talking about, I could never hate you_ or _I've never liked you anyway_.

She decides not to dwell on it.

"…Can I go back to sleep _now_?"

"_No_," he says again. "_Is the window unlocked?_"

Sakura stares at the ceiling. "Do you have any idea how creepy that statement is?"

"_Shut up. Is it?_"

"Of course it is."

Sakura never locks the window to the fire escape when she was home. That was usually her way in and out of her apartment—it would be silly to lock it. Especially because Naruto and Sasuke and Sai use it on a fairly-regular basis when they need a place to crash.

Freeloaders.

Sakura rubs her eyes and mutters ungratefully about idiots who don't pay rent and ruin her sleep. She was just going to stab them. All of them. Or poison them. Or something.

"_Good. I'm coming up_."

"Sasuke, you—"

The line goes dead. He doesn't even had the courtesy to say goodbye.

This is when Sakura decides that she is going to kill him.

She slips out of bed. She doesn't really think as she slips her feet into a pair of fluffy pink slippers and toddles out to her kitchen. Hot chocolate is a definite investment, at this point.

The window rattles and screeches as Sasuke swung in.

Sakura narrows her eyes at him, green and flinty. "So do I get an explanation, or…?"

He just stares at her. Just stares. Nothing else.

"I'll take that as a _no_," Sakura surmises. She sighs. "Want some hot chocolate?"

He nods. His bangs fall over his eyes. Sakura shivers and thinks about how it's a loop, how Sasuke is a loop because everything starts and ends with him. She doesn't want it to be—she never wanted it to be.

But Sasuke's kind of different like that.

Sakura pours him a cup of cocoa. She hands it to him, careful not to touch his fingers. She wonders if he even notices.

When his brow crinkles, she thinks he does.

Sakura tilts head and they sit at her tiny kitchen table. Steam rises from the hot chocolate.

"Is everything okay?" she asks because she knows it isn't.

"Hn," he grumbles.

For a long moment, they look anywhere but each other. Sakura stares at the table, trying not to smile. Sasuke will never change. There's a part of her that's glad for it.

But then her heart hurts.

She hears him shift, and then his fingers touch her face. He tucks tangled pink hair behind her ear, and then doesn't move away.

Sakura freezes. Looks up.

He kisses her like burning.

It feels like falling and she clutches at his shirt because she thinks that if she doesn't, she's going to crash headlong into the ground and it's going to hurt. It's like a tightrope and Sasuke is the baton, the only balance she could ever need or want.

Sakura shivers with eyes closed. "This is pretty fucked up, Sasuke."

He chuckles, and Sakura can feel it vibrate against her throat. She almost smiles.

The hot chocolate sits on table, forgotten.

—

.

.

.

.

.

_fin_.  
><strong>notes3<strong>: welp. that was interesting.  
><strong>notes4<strong>: please leave a review! :)


End file.
